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Create a template app in Power BI (preview)

02/04/2019

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In this article

The new Power BI template apps enable Power BI partners to build Power BI apps with little or no coding, and deploy them to any Power BI customer. This article contains step-by-step instructions to create a Power BI template app.

If you can create Power BI reports and dashboards, you can become a template app builder who builds and packages analytical content into an app. You can then deploy your app to other Power BI tenants through any available platform, such as AppSource, or by using it in your own web service. As a builder you can create a protected analytics package for distribution.

Power BI tenant admins govern and control who in their organization can create template apps, and who can install them. Those who are authorized can install your template app, then modify it and distribute it to the Power BI consumers in their organization.

Create the content in your template app

As with a regular Power BI app workspace, your next step is to create the contents in the workspace. In this preview version of template apps, we support only up to one of each type: one dataset, one report, and one dashboard.

Create the test template app

Now that you have content in your workspace, you're ready to package it in a template app. The first step is to create a test template app, accessible only from within your organization on your tenant.

In the template app workspace, select Create app.

Here, you fill in additional parameters for your template app, in four categories.

Branding

App name

Description

App logo (optional)

App color

Content

App landing page (optional): Define a report or dashboard to be the landing page of your app.

Control

Control several limitations and restrictions that your application users will have with the content of your application. You can use this control to protect certain intellectual property your app might contain.

Access

In the test phase, decide which others in your organization can install and test your app.

Don't worry, you can always come back and change these settings later.

Select Create app.

You see a message that the test app is ready, with a link to copy and share with your app testers.

You've also done the first step of the release management process, which follows.

Manage the template app release

Before you release this template app publicly, you want to make sure it's ready to go. Power BI has created the release management pane, where you can follow and inspect the full app release path. You can also trigger the transition from stage to stage. The common stages are:

If you created the test app in Create the test template app above, the yellow dot next to Testing is already filled and you don't need to select Create app here. If you do select it, you go back into the template app creation process.

Select Get link.

To test the app installation experience, copy the link in the notification window and paste it in a new browser window.